Inspirational Vergin Mazmanian, 103, Dies Bipartisan Genocide ...

6 S A T U R D A Y, J U N E 2 5 , 2 0 1 1 T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O R
Saroyan Mementos
Packed into Fresno
Warehouse
By Tara Albert
FRESNO (Fresno Bee) — For many Fresno
residents, the name Saroyan isn’t synonymous
with a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright or
short-story master whose fiction they’ve read.
It’s the name of a theater downtown.
“As far as his own home turf, the interest in
him has just been lagging for a number of
years,” said Bill Secrest, a special collections
librarian for the Fresno County Public Library.
Looking on the bright side, Haig Mardikian,
president of the William Saroyan Foundation in
San Francisco, said that the storage warehouse
at least protects the items until a museum or
university might agree to house them. “For the
time being, the foundation is mostly concerned
with preserving the material,” he said.
That Saroyan’s possessions now sit in a warehouse
gathering dust is an indignity that the
author himself might find amusing. After all,
Saroyan spent much of his life in a personal war
with materialism. According to legend, he lost
hundreds of thousands of dollars to the roulette
tables and the racing ponies.
As is often the case with writers, Saroyan had
a complicated relationship with the city that
defined his early life. Depending on what
Haig Mardikian
Saroyan essay or short story you read, he either
loved or hated the place. By age 18, he wanted
nothing more than to leave Fresno’s small town
“rot and decay and ferment,” he once wrote.
The town, in turn, regarded him with similar
ambivalence.
Sure, Fresno held a centennial celebration of
his life in 2008 that included photo and art
exhibits, performances of his plays and discussions
of his books, not to mention a Saroyan
wine made locally and a bus with the visage of
the author, his thick eyebrows and walrus mustache,
plastered on its side.
And yet the house he lived in after his birth
on August 31, 1908, was long ago torn down to
make way for progress. After his death in 1981,
local libraries, museums and Fresno State had
a chance to keep a treasure trove of his published
and unpublished manuscripts, his artwork
and correspondence and diary. Instead,
most of the Saroyan collection was allowed to
slip away to the University of California at
Berkeley, and now Stanford University.
For many years, the items that remained in
Fresno became part of a highly regarded permanent
Saroyan exhibit at the Met. It took up a
full room and included rare photographs and
letters, his typewriter and the Oscar he won for
the screenplay of his novel, The Human
Comedy.
Community News
AGBU Vice President Sinan Sinanian presents an award to AGBU Manoogian-
Demirdjian’s retiring principal, Hagop Hagopian.
AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian
School Celebrates Its
35th Anniversary
Honors Retiring Principal Hagop Hagopian
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The 35th anniversary gala banquet of the AGBU
Manoogian-Demirdjian School took place on March 26, at the Ronald Reagan
Presidential Library here, with nearly 500 attendees. The event was organized by
the Canoga Park School’s Parent-Teacher Organization. The evening’s motto was
“The Past and the Present; Then and Now.”
The school’s alumni were highlighted throughout the program and numerous
awards were presented to the school and its principal, including the AGBU
President’s Award. During the program, which was emceed by Peter Musurlian, a
special honor was paid to the school’s principal, Hagop Hagopian, who is retiring. A
surprise presentation took him, and his entire family who was in attendance, by surprise.
Sinan Sinanian, vice president of AGBU and member of the school’s board of
trustees, expressed his deep appreciation for Hagopian’s devoted service over the
years and presented him with a symbolic gift. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), as well as
Eileen Keusseyan, chair of the Parent-Teacher Organization, both spoke warmly
about the school reaching this milestone under Hagopian’s leadership.
Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian
Church of North America, honored Hagopian for his 30 years of educational service
with a certificate of blessing and appreciation. Mentioned in the certificate
was the fact that Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, had bestowed the St.
Sahag and St. Mesrob medal upon Hagopian in 2001. The certificate further read:
“The popular saying says, ‘Educating a child is educating a nation.’ We highly
appreciate the uncompromising services of the veteran principal and educator
Hagop Hagopian. Today, the Manoogian-Demirdjian is steadfastly and courageously
continuing its mission as an educational institution serving the community
and the nation, while preserving the Armenian language.”
The AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School began in 1976 as St. Peter-AGBU Day
School with an enrollment of 19 pupils and a staff of three teachers. Since then,
it has grown into an accredited, state-of-the-art college-preparatory academy with
close to 800 students, nearly 100 highly qualified educators, and a dedicated support
staff.
The members of the AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School’s Parent-Teacher
Organization, which organized the event at the Reagan Presidential Library
Prof. Dadrian
Celebrates 85th
Birthday, Aims
Not to Slow Down
TORONTO — Showing no signs of slowing
down, Prof. Vahakn N. Dadrian, director
of Genocide Research at the Zoryan
Institute and renowned expert in the field
of genocide studies, recently celebrated
his 85th birthday. Widely recognized as
the foremost scholar of the Armenian
Genocide, Dadrian has devoted more than
50 years to the study of virtually every
aspect of it, and he has no intention of
stopping now.
On the occasion, President of Armenia
Serge Sargisian commented, “You are
one of the most important Armenian scientists
of our time, whose work and findings
are hugely meaningful for both public
and political policy. Your investment in
the campaign for international recognition
of the Armenian Genocide and your
ongoing efforts in fighting attempts at
denial, has resulted in ongoing feats of
success. Your work has a huge impact in
the study of genocide and its denial,
where Armenia has staked its place as a
groundbreaking leader in the field.”
In honor of his steadfast dedication and
immeasurable contribution, a list of con-
Prof. Vahakn Dadrian
gratulations from some of Dadrian’s
admirers and colleagues worldwide follows.
Current president of the International
Association of Genocide Scholars and
director of the Irish Centre for Human
Rights at the National University of
Ireland in Galway, Prof. William A.
Schabas, declared, “Vahakn Dadrian’s historical
research on the Armenian
Genocide is informed by a rich grasp of
the legal issues. In particular, he has
examined the efforts nearly a century ago
to bring perpetrators of genocide to justice.
His contribution both to historical
and legal scholarship is enormous.”
Israel Charney, a past president of the
IAGS, executive director of the Institute
on the Holocaust and Genocide in
Jerusalem, and editor-in-chief of Genocide
Prevention Now, noted: “Prof. Vahakn
Dadrian was one of the earliest students
of comparative aspects of the Holocaust
and the Armenian Genocide, and in
recent years he is at the crest of his dedicated
research, including a sterling study
of the judicial process of post-Ottoman
Turkish courts-martial.”
M.C. Bassiouni, professor of law and
president of the International Human
Rights Institute at De Paul University, has
written, “Of all the conflicting and contradictory
literature on the subject,
including many Turkish publications
denying, justifying or explaining what
happened, Dadrian’s work is the most
see DADRIAN, page 9